Canton of Basel

The Canton of Basel was a canton of northern Switzerland that existed from 1501 to 1833, located along the borders with France and Germany. In 1648, the Holy Roman Empire was forced to recognize the independence of Basel after the end of the Thirty Years War, and Basel was briefly a part of France during the French Revolutionary Wars. In 1830, political conflict began in Basel as the people of the city of Basel and the countryside's population began to fight over representation rights, and an army of 1,200 Basler troops and 14 cannons marched into the countryside on 3 August 1833 to quell the unrest. At Huelftenschanz, a superior rebel army overwhelmed the Basler army in an ambush, inflicting heavy losses on the army as it retreated. On 17 August 1833, Basel was divided into half-cantons, namely Basel-City and Basel-Country.